


Soulmates

by iloveitblue



Series: Prompts [106]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-05
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-02-19 23:44:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2407283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iloveitblue/pseuds/iloveitblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where there are dreams</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The thing about dreams is that it’s rare. The ones that have them, we call them prophets, shamans, sages, fakirs, psychics - or whatever names you choose to call them. These special people, they can tell you what happens in the future only because they’ve seen it in dreams.

Now, having a dream is not an easy task. It takes away most of your energy leaving you feeling weary and depressed. That’s why only a handful of people get dreams when they sleep at night. The rest of us, we shut the dreams out. It keeps us more active, less paranoid, yada, yada, yada. To normal people, our dreams only appear when it has a message for us that’s so important our soul doesn’t even find the need to resist it.

One of these  _important_ messages our soul lets in is a picture of a moment. They say when you’re about to meet the person you’re meant to be with, the one who’ll complete the other half of your soul, you’ll get dreams.

But these dreams, unlike the normal ones, seem almost real. You hear the sounds around you. You feel the air that touches your skin. The only catch? You only see flashes of it until the moment comes true.

Phil Coulson saw the rain when he was 10. It was during Math class and he’d managed to doze off - which was unlike him but maybe he shouldn’t have stayed up reading comics the night before. It was night time, and the rain had been pouring. He felt the raindrops fall against his face and roll down his body. He was feeling soaked to the bones and he was cold. Strangely though, he didn’t see the need to take shelter. He’d stand in the rain all night if he had to. Then there was a flash of lightning and he woke up with a start.

Mrs. Jenkins shook her head at him, told him she’d expected better and gave him detention. 

The next time Phil Coulson dreamt, he was 24. He was in the rangers then. It wasn’t much, but he saw purple and red. He didn’t know what to make of it, but he knew it meant something. He woke up on the dot, just like he trained his body to.

The next thing he knew, he retired from the Rangers and in the SHIELD roster together with Nicholas Fury.

The next piece of the puzzle came to him on his 30th birthday. While he was passed out on the couch after a drinking game with Maria, Nick and Jasper. He heard a sound. Beautiful, melodious, almost soothing. Something close to an orchestra playing in the distance. He woke up groaning with his head pounding and promising never to drink again. 

The next week, he was sent to Portland. To investigate a possible gifted - Marcus Daniels. That was when Phil met Audrey Nathan. Everything from his dreams fit too when they first met.

Phil ran to her door in the pouring rain, cursing the clear skies of the afternoon. Before he rang the doorbell he heard music playing. A string-instrument if his ears were correct and when Audrey opened the door, she was wearing a purple dress with red flowers on it. Phil wanted to believe he’d finally found her. That it really was Audrey. But it wasn’t that simple. Nothing in his life ever really was.

A few months after he met Audrey, he had another dream. He felt it all too. The cold steel of the gun in his palm, the recoil of the pistol as he pulled the trigger but that wasn’t the strangest part. He also saw an arrow on the ground. He woke up again thinking why he had another dream. He’d already met Audrey. The dreams should have stopped by now. 

Unless…

Phil sighed.

It wasn’t Audrey, was it?

—-

They finally had him where they wanted him and all it took was SHIELD’s best agents. Typical.

Phil stepped out of his van and into the pouring rain, complete with thundering skies and a moonless night. He walked towards the man cornered by three other agents. Phil dismissed the other agents and was soon left alone standing in the rain with the person Nick has been hunting down for a good couple of years.

The rain rolled off of his face just as it did Phil’s. All Phil heard was the clatter of the rain against the ground and Jasper’s voice in his ear accompanied by the Portland Orchestra’s Concert - Jasper got addicted to them after Phil broke up with Audrey. When the man tried to escape, Phil quickly went for his gun, and shot at the man. The man faltered and his weapon fell to the ground. A bow, and some arrows. Phil picked up a stray arrow that had managed to land by his feet and studied it.

Then there was a flash of lightning.

And everything clicked into place.

The rain, the lightning, the music in his ear, the gun, the arrow… all that was missing was-

The man groaned and hissed. He took his hand off of his side and saw the blood covering his hand. He went back to putting pressure on it. The blood still seeped through his shirt. 

Purple and Red.

"It’s you." Phil heard himself say.

"Fuck you." The guy - Clint Barton aka Hawkeye aka His Soulmate - replied.


	2. Chapter 2

The good thing about knowing who your soulmate is is that you don’t have to wait forever to know that someone out there was meant to be with you.

The bad thing was that you don’t know if they  _want_  to even be with you in the first place. 

That was Clint Barton’s problem at the moment. He knew that Phil Coulson was his soulmate from the moment they met and Clint had hissed ‘Fuck You’ at him -  _not a very good first impression_ , Clint kept telling himself after that. He knew simply because the dreams had lined up with reality that night. 

The stinging pain on his side that could only be a bullet wound, the dramatic rain that fell on him, the finely suited man standing over him, and the lightning that showed Clint briefly what the stranger looked like.

Phil was just as surprised as he was when he figured it out. 

But see, the thing was, even if Phil  _was_  his soulmate, Clint didn’t know what Phil felt about him, well, that isn’t technically true. Clint knew Phil respected him for his skills but that was professionally. Personally, Phil gave Clint more of the ‘I-tolerate-your-existence’ vibe. 

No matter how hard Clint tried after their horrible first meeting Phil still looked like he didn’t want to stay within Clint’s perimeter longer than he had to.

Which of course made Clint want to try harder.

"You’re annoying him." Natasha concluded. "And you’re annoying me. Will you please stop moping around?"

"Mmsh hhsmsm ehhsaim miopla" Clint said into his pillow.

"Yes, but moping really doesn’t suit you, Clinton." 

Natasha had been with SHIELD long enough that she knew what the story was behind Phil and Clint dancing around each other. 

Clint raised his head to glare at Natasha. “You know I hate that name.”

"Ah, but it got you to say proper words this time."

Clint sighed and sat up on the edge of his bed. “I don’t know what to do, Tasha. He won’t even look at me.”

Natasha snorted in that way she knew annoyed Clint because it meant she knew something he didn’t.  _Won’t even look? Honey, he can’t take his eyes off you. You just don’t see it. Which baffles me to this day._  She doesn’t say out loud.  _  
_

Clint rolled his eyes at her silence. “What about you, huh? How would you tell your soulmate you love them if you knew they weren’t interested.”

"Love is for children." Natasha simply stated. "If I ever meet James, I’m sure it would be a partnership rather than a relationship." She shrugged at him. 

"Okay then, how would you feel if this James character suddenly told you he loved you?" Clint asked her.

"I would distance myself from him." Natasha answered truthfully.

"That’s why I don’t want to tell him! What if Phil doesn’t feel the same as I do? I would not only lose him as a handler, I’d also lose any chance of us being friends. I don’t want that." 

"But you’re not happy with how you are with him right now." She told him.

"I have to be, if its all I’m going to get."

—-

"You have to tell him how you feel."

Phil didn’t even look up at Natasha’s sudden barging in. “Who is it? Oh, Agent Romanov, come in. Have a seat. It is a great day. No, I’m not all that busy. Why don’t you take a seat?” He said, sarcastically. Natasha managed not to roll her eyes at him but sat in the seat across his desk.

"Pleasantries aside, you need to tell him how you feel." 

Phil signed the last report that needed his signature before he looked up at her. “Why in the world would I do that? This, what we have right now, its working.”

"But it isn’t how you want things to be. You love him and you can’t even deny it." 

Phil had tried many times to deny his attraction for the archer but failed as many times. Clint was just so hard to ignore. Whenever Phil entered a room, his first instinct was to look for the archer. He’d thought he managed to hide it pretty well but apparently not.

"What I want doesn’t matter. He hasn’t shown interest in me, and I don’t intend to ruin my partnership with him just because I developed romantic feelings for him." Phil told her with a stern voice.

"A soulmate is supposed to be the one to help you reach your full potential. Someone to bring the best out of you. You do that for him and he does that for you. If you happen to like each other in a romantic way then that’s a bonus. I don’t get why you don’t just act on  _your_ feelings and tell him.” 

"Because he doesn’t return the sentiment. I’m not about to force Clint into a relationship he doesn’t want just because  _I’m_  in love with him.”

Natasha was about to say something more but the dull thud and the hissing voice in the vents told her it was time to retreat. “I hope you know I think you’re both idiots.” She got up and left, leaving Phil to deal with their resident vent crawler.

Phil sighed. “Clint, please come down from there.” He heard a few rustling sounds, and took the time to get the first aid kit from his drawer. When he turned around, Clint was already standing there, shifting uncomfortably. “Please take a seat, Agent Barton.” 

Clint did. Phil rounded his desk and inspected Clint’s head for anything other than a slight bump that might have appeared. So far there was nothing. “I suppose you’d like to talk?” Phil offered because as much as he’d like to avoid it as long as he can, he shouldn’t. 

"Was it true?" Clint asked him. 

"Which part?"

"Everything. That- I’m- I’m more concerned about the you loving me part, but I also want to know if everything is true."

Phil stepped away to take the ice pack from his first aid kit and went to the mini fridge on the wall. He took some ice and placed it inside before twisting the cap close. “It is. I don’t know how much you heard but I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true.”

"How long?" Clint asked, a slightly scared look in his eyes.

"Does it matter?" Phil answered him truthfully. "I can pretend that the feelings don’t exist Clint. If that’ll help. I can also find you a better handler if you want." Phil placed the ice pack gently on the archer’s head.

Clint grabbed his hand then and looked up at Phil. “No. I don’t want that. I don’t want any handler but you.” 

Phil smiled at Clint. It was a sad smile, the kind that didn’t reach his eyes - the kind Clint didn’t like. “Thank you.” 

They were silent for a bit, while Phil re-positioned the ice pack.

"You lied, you know." Clint told him.

"Pardon?" 

"You lied. Earlier. When you said everything you said was true." Phil remained quiet, unsure of which part Clint was talking about. "I was showing interest in you. Too much of it actually. Natasha hasn’t stopped rolling her eyes at me and I can’t actually stop pining over you." Clint glanced up tentatively, his ears turning a shade red.

"You-" Phil’s voice squeaked so he tried again. "You like me?"

"Like… Love… I’ve blurred the lines a long time ago." Clint said in a soft voice but still holding Phil’s gaze.

Phil smiled, this time it was the kind Clint loved. Muted but beautiful. Phil’s hand reached out, framing Clint’s cheek and jaw. His thumb traced his chin for a moment before using it to lift Clint’s face to meet his. Clint was all too willing to oblige. 

Their lips met, warm lips meeting soft ones. It wasn’t as amazing as they’d both dreamt it’d be.

It was  _better,_ mostly because it was finally  _real._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here on tumblr](http://promptmephlint.tumblr.com/post/108266522631/im-getting-sleepy-time-check-its-4am-lol-and)

**Author's Note:**

> [Here on tumblr](http://promptmephlint.tumblr.com/post/99217026686/i-felt-like-writing-out-of-the-norm-today-so)


End file.
